21 people were killed and 49 people were injured when their bus that was headed for the Kenyan capital Nairobi, traveling from the Ugandan city of Mbale, crashed right after crossing the Ugandan border, into the Kenyan town of Lwakhakha, said police on sunday in light of recent deadly car accident. Rogers Tatika, a Ugandan spokesman for the regional police, states that most of the fatalities were of Kenyan nationality, while only 8 of the people killed were Ugandan. Preliminary findings found that the driver of the bus crashed because he was distracted causing him to lose control of the bus ending it crashing, leading to the Ugandan government imposing new laws and regulations to increase safety when driving.
This article is important because if further problems of driving continue that affect both Kenya and Uganda, it could end up affecting their relations with each other. If their relations sour, Kenya will be greatly affected because Uganda is their greatest trading partner. To show how much Kenya relies on Uganda, in 2020 the total amount of exports from Uganda to Kenya totaled to $401 Million. Losing this trade relation with Uganda would deliver a huge blow to Kenya. However, this is highly unlikely to happen, as the blame for road safety doesn’t entirely fall on Kenya, as Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole has seen an 84% growth of death from injuries since 1990. This is a Regional problem, greatly exacerbated by issues like undisciplined drivers, speeding, and ignoring traffic signals and signs.
My theory as to why driving in Sub-Saharan Africa is less technologically advanced than a region such as Europe, is due to not only corrupt corporations, but the fact that the region has less global outreach and power. Even though the region of Sub-Saharan Africa, and Africa in general, is rich in resources, their lack of overall government stability, colonialism, and some of their weak geographical locations have led the region of sub saharan Africa being as weak as it is. It also doesn’t help that many countries have exploited sub saharan Africa for its resources, further weakening the region.